


Away On Business

by elirwen



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mpreg, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:52:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elirwen/pseuds/elirwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur left for an urgent business trip, leaving seven months pregnant Merlin in Gwaine's care. Three days later, Merlin gets a call that sends him into a panic attack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gwaine's POV

“No, you definitely cannot be there during the birth as a cameraman,” Merlin says, laughing.

“Come on, Merlin, don’t push me away,” Gwaine says with a mock pout, making Merlin laugh harder as he walks to the fridge to get himself a glass of orange juice. 

Gwaine likes to bring smile to Merlin’s face. It makes the whole world look brighter. Spending time in Merlin’s company has become a rare treasure these days. If Arthur hadn’t been pulled away on a business trip nobody else could handle and hadn’t asked Gwaine to look after his husband, Gwaine wouldn’t have the opportunity to spend four whole days with his best friend.

It doesn’t matter that Merlin ignores him for hours each day, lost in a fantasy world of his latest novel. Their lunch, dinner and snack times (and occasional massage Merlin’s feet times) more than make up for it.

Merlin’s eyes twinkle with the remnants of laughter as he sips his juice, looking at Gwaine over the rim of the glass.

“What are we watching today? Avengers again?” Gwaine asks.

“Maybe?” Merlin says with a grin and Gwaine laughs because they’ve already watched Avengers twice in past two days.

Merlin’s mobile rings and he picks it up without delay. Gwaine crosses the room to look inside the fridge, contemplating their dinner options.

“Yes, that’s me,” Merlin says, sounding confused.

Gwaine turns around and mouth ‘what’s going on?’ at him.

Merlin doesn’t answer, but there’s no need for words. All the remnants of happiness vanish from Merlin’s face as the seconds tick by, colour leaving his cheeks. 

“No, it can’t be,” Merlin says, his voice trembling. 

Gwaine moves towards him, taking the glass from his fingers and setting it on the counter as Merlin still listens to whoever is on the line. 

“Yes, of course, thank you,” Merlin says.

His hand falls down his side, the phone slipping out of his grip and crashing to the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Gwaine asks, touching Merlin’s arm tentatively.

Merlin doesn’t move, staring straight ahead, probably not even registering his surroundings.

“Talk to me,” Gwaine says, gently shaking him by his arms to bring him out of his stupor.

Merlin’s head snaps up and there’s panic in his eyes. He opens his mouth and takes a deep breath and then another, and before Gwaine can do anything, Merlin starts hyperventilating.

“Merlin, calm down! I need you to calm down,” Gwaine says, pulling Merlin in for a hug.

Merlin sags against him with all his weight and Gwaine realizes he fainted only after his breathing begins to even out.

“Okay, now I’m slightly freaked out,” Gwaine mutters to himself as he gathers Merlin into his arms and carries him to his bedroom. 

He smoothes the hair from Merlin’s forehead, the skin clammy under his fingers.

“Arthur’s going to kill me if he finds out you fainted on me.”

He takes Merlin’s hand and locates his pulse point. Reassured by steady beat of Merlin’s heart, he waits a little longer for Merlin to wake up on his own. Eventually, Merlin stirs. 

“Arthur?” he mumbles, gripping Gwaine’s arm tightly.

“Arthur’s away on business, remember?”

Merlin’s instantly awake, his arms going to his belly.

“What am I going to do?” Merlin whispers. “I shouldn’t have let him go. I can’t do this alone.”

“What was the call about?” Gwaine asks, dread settling into his stomach.

“Arthur… he’s…” Merlin’s eyes fill with tears. “There was a gas explosion under the hotel he was staying in.”

Gwaine climbs on the bed completely and pulls Merlin into his arms. He can’t think of anything to say right now.

“His assistant tried to call him, but he’s unavailable,” Merlin mumbles into Gwaine’s chest, one of his hands clutching the shirt desperately while the other doesn’t leave his belly. “He was staying on the fifth floor. The rescue team can’t get in there.”

Gwaine comforts him as much as he can, running his hand over his back in what he hopes is soothing manner. He can’t imagine how terrified Merlin must be. Arthur is his friend and he’s more than worried too, but it must be complete hell for Merlin, especially with the baby on the way.

“We don’t know if he was really in there. He might have gone for a walk or something,” Gwaine says. “We need to stay positive.”

 

~x~

 

Almost two hours later, Merlin fell into exhausted sleep. Gwaine managed to extricate himself from him to turn the lights off in the kitchen and change into something more comfortable for sleeping.

Halfway through pulling on his sleep pants, he hears some noise coming from the front door. The neighbour from above probably got drunk and mistook the floors again. Gwaine heads out of the guest room to send him on his way when the main door opens and Arthur stumbles inside with a suitcase in one hand and a bouquet of white tulips in the other. 

“Oh, hi,” Arthur greets him. “I thought you’d be watching a movie or something.”

After hours of calming Merlin and worrying about Arthur, seeing him causes not only surge of relief but also anger at how casually he strode inside with a smile on his face.

“Is this some kind of a sick joke?” Gwaine asks. “He was terrified, Arthur. How could you?”

“What?” Arthur asks, stunned.

“You could have at least called. He believed you dead.”


	2. Arthur's POV

Arthur’s bored out of his mind. He hoped to be on a plane home already, but his flight has been delayed so he’s been sitting in this terribly uncomfortable airport chair for more than two hours already. 

He’d surf the net or play games on his phone if he could, but he forgot to pack his charger when he was leaving in a rush three days ago. It was a small miracle that the battery lasted so long before it succumbed to complete depletion some four hours ago. 

He was lucky to sort things out at the branch office so fast. He might even get home before midnight if the delay will be only the three hours as he was told at the information desk. Closing his eyes, he imagines Merlin’s surprised face when he’d show up early, presenting Merlin with a bouquet of flowers. He’d pull Merlin in for a thorough kiss, sweep him of his feet and carry him into their bedroom where he’d turn him into a boneless bumbling mess. 

He still has a thoroughly sappy smile on his face when his plane is finally announced as ready for boarding.

 

~x~

 

Stumbling into his flat at around ten in the evening, he’s surprised to find it mostly dark with Gwaine walking out of the guest room dressed only in his sleep pants. 

“Oh, hi, I thought you’d be watching a movie or something,” Arthur says with a smile.

Gwaine’s expression is indecipherable and Arthur’s about to ask if everything’s alright when Gwaine speaks.

“Is this some kind of a sick joke? He was terrified, Arthur. How could you?”

“What?” Arthur asks.

It doesn’t make sense. Merlin knew Arthur would be coming back tomorrow. There was no reason for him to be worried.

“You could have at least called. He believed you dead,” Gwaine shouts.

“What?” Arthur repeats. “Why? Is he okay?”

“You don’t know? The damn hotel you were staying in is now a pile of debris,” Gwaine says, his tone still biting, but he’s no longer yelling. 

Arthur feels a bit lightheaded when he realizes how lucky he was. 

“I had no idea,” he says.

The door to their bedroom opens, revealing sleepy looking Merlin. He takes a breath to say something, but his eyes land on Arthur at the same time, and he freezes. Arthur doesn’t waste any more time. He takes the few steps that are separating him from Merlin and envelopes him in his arms.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’d never put you through something like this,” he mumbles into Merlin’s ear.

Merlin’s shaking hands are moving over his body, making sure Arthur is whole and uninjured. 

“Am I dreaming?” Merlin asks when his hands finally settle, one on Arthur’s neck, the other tangled in his shirt.

“I’m here. It’s real,” Arthur says.

“I thought I’d lost you,” Merlin whispers. 

Arthur presses a kiss to Merlin’s cheek, to Merlin’s lips. They stay like that for a while, Merlin leaning into Arthur, tears coming and going in waves as Merlin deals with the past fear and recent relief, and Arthur kissing each patch of skin he can reach. 

“I wanted to surprise you,” Arthur says. “I had it all planned. I brought you flowers.”

He doesn’t pull away entirely, just enough to bring the flowers into the line of Merlin’s vision. Two of the tulips are hanging down, broken from being gripped so tight and pressed to Merlin’s back, but the rest remains unscathed.

“They’re beautiful,” Merlin says, slight wobble still in his voice. 

He yawns and rests his head on Arthur’s shoulder. Arthur startles a bit when Gwaine touches his hand, taking the flowers from him. He forgot Gwaine was still there.

“You should go to bed,” Gwaine says. 

Arthur lets go of the flowers and offers Gwaine a tired smile.

“Thank you for being here for him.” 

“No problem,” Gwaine says. “I’ll be in the guest room if you need anything.”

“Thanks,” Arthur says again and turns back to Merlin.

 

~x~

 

Merlin doesn’t let him change into his pyjamas, unwilling to let go of him even for a second. He helps Arthur unbutton his shirt and pull off his trousers, but once Arthur’s stripped to his boxer briefs only, he pulls him down on the bed, throwing a blanket over them both, and presses himself to Arthur’s front with Arthur’s hand firmly clasped in his, resting them both over the bump of his seventh month belly.

“I’m not letting you go on any other business trip, no matter how important it is,” Merlin says when Arthur wriggles his hand free and starts caressing Merlin’s belly. “Not until I can go with you to make sure you’re safe.”

“That would be quite some time. You can’t travel with an infant.” 

“You’d better get used to video conferences then,” Merlin says.

“Not everything can be done over a skype call.”

“Arthur Pendragon, I will chain you to this very bed if I have to.”

“Mmmm, kinky…” Arthur says, nuzzling Merlin’s hair.

“Arthur, I’m serious. I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Sorry,” Arthur says, finding Merlin’s hand again and twining their fingers together. “I won’t go on any other business trip until your magic recovers from the pregnancy and our baby is old enough to travel with us.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Merlin turns around and pulls a pillow from somewhere behind him, stuffing it under his belly, and half drapes himself over Arthur. He wriggles around for a little longer, settling in the most comfortable position.

“I’m not a pillow, you know?” Arthur says, smiling.

“Who told you that? They totally lied. Your main purpose in life is to be my pillow,” Merlin mumbles. 

“Of course it is,” Arthur says, kissing Merlin on the tip of his nose. “My last pillowlord.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick note: nobody died in the explosion. There was a few minor injuries and even less of the more serious ones (broken bones and stuff). I don't particularly enjoy killing people, even if they're fictional and unnamed.


End file.
